Kinect For Windows Shipping 1st February, Available To Pre-Order For $250

Steve Ballmer Microsoft’s CEO has announced that Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller gaming peripheral will be arriving for Windows on February 1st 2012. If you would like to be one of the first to get your hands on the new Kinect device. The Kinect for Windows gaming peripheral is now available to pre-order for $249.99 from Amazon.

The new Kinect for Windows Sensor is fitted with a shortened USB cable to ensure reliability across a broad range of computers and includes a small dongle to improve support with other USB peripherals.

The Kinect for Windows firmware enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters.

A new “Near Mode” feature included in the Kinect for Windows will enable a whole new class of “close up” applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360, says Microsoft.

The Kinect for Windows sensor unit is intended to be used with the Kinect for Windows Commercial SDK and applications that have been developed using the Kinect for Windows Commercial SDK and associated runtime software.